The Zen of Results Free E-Book

When you’re working on what matters, you feel good about the time you spend.

You’re on your path.

But what happens when you’re path is overgrown by a gnarled and knotted garden of demands? Worse, what happens when you get to some molehills only to find they’ve turned into mountains?

When the little engine that could, feels like the little engine that can’t, you need a new approach. One where you thrive not survive …

The Zen of Results

The Zen of Results is a way. It’s a living system for personal productivity. The fact that it’s a living system is important. Life’s not static. Neither are you. You need an approach that if you fall off the horse, you can get back on. More importantly, you need to know that you’re on YOUR path. Meaningful outcomes … for a meaningful life … for you … by design.

The Zen of Results Approach in Nutshell

The approach in a nutshell is:

Scannable outcomes to guide your activities and tasks.

Life frame to organize and balance the important hot spots in your life.

Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection to guide your week.

Daily Outcomes to guide your day.

Download the Zen of Results E-Book

An Experiment in Simple E-Books for the Web

The Zen of Results E-Book is an experiment in terms of format for me. I stumbled across Joanna Young’s A Simple Guide to Compiling a Free E-Book and decided to give it a shot. Normally, I write longer guides on technical topics, so this is a change of pace and a personal experiment. For this experiment, I’m testing converting a slide presentation to a PDF format to see if it helps consumption on the Web.

22 COMMENTS

[…] of my passions. As one of my little experiments while I’m out of the office, I put together The Zen of Results E-Book. I turned a slide deck into a PDF to see if it makes it easier to share. It’s brief (17 […]

Your ebook is awesome! The more I read your blog posts, the more I realize how my mindset affects that which I can accomplish each day. Your ebook came at a perfect time. Thank you so much for sharing your tips on the simplicity of time management. I love how you suggest asking the question: ““What do you want to accomplish?”. By doing so, the “answers” become obvious. Brilliant work, J.D.

I just studied your PowerPoint version. This PDF version seems have slightly more information.

I did some reverse engineering of your Outlook screen in the PowerPoint version though 🙂

I was wondering if you could share some insights and techniques how to use Outlook 2007 as the implementation tool of ZenOfResults, such as:
1. how to use/organize PST file (by year?)
2. How do you do journal in Outlook or in OneNote?
3. How to setup folders for weekly, monthly results, etc.
4. How to use Calendar, Task, Appointments, Notes
5. …

I am looking for the guidance and practice of how you use Outlook 2007 to implement ZenOfResults.

Thank you! You’re right — the mindset is the key. I can gulp a strawberry, or I can savor the moment. I can watch the scoreboard, or I can focus one pitch at a time. Changing questions is a great way to change focus, change mindsets, and change results. The other key is giving yourself the right time for things and adjusting based on what you want to accomplish.

@ Kevin

Here’s the keys:
1. Yes, by year. I’ve found it very simple to archive that way. I create a PST for archiving my Inbox and one for my archiving my Sent.
2. In Outlook, I create a folder with posts (file -> new -> post in this folder)
3. I have a To Dos folder and each day I make a new post in it, titled by day. On Mondays, I send out an email called “Weekly Outcomes” — for myself and for my team. At the end of each month, I summarize results in a Wiki page.
4. I don’t use tasks. They’re too “heavy” for me and it feels like death by 1000 paper cuts. I block off my best working hours and free up afternoons for meetings, work time or think time. I consolidate as much administration to Monday’s as possible and I push as much of my interaction to Friday’s as possible (Mondays are admin focus, Friday’s are people focus, Tue-Thu is execution focus). I drag+drop mails onto my calendar if they’ll take time. I
5. I create a “Queues” folder. I create a post for each project or significant ball that I’m juggling. This gives me one place to put all potential action items at a macroa and micro level (master/detail). I can see what’s on my plate at a glance, and I can carve out items each day as I create my daily to dos. You can think of this as a folder of mini backlogs.

When I don’t have Outlook, I create folders and do the same thing but with text files. For example, under my To Dos folder, you’d find:
…
2008-12-08.txt
2008-12-09.txt
2008-12-10.txt

Each day you get a clean slate. You get to drive. The system supports you. To get on the horse, you simply start your day with, what are 3 meaningful outcomes you want and that’s your priority for the day. The To Do list is both a tickler list to free your brain up and thinking on paper helps you get clarity on what you want to accomplish. Having one place to look for your actions is important. It’s a simple way to free up your mind for better things.

[…] Free E-Book – one of my little experiments while I’m out of the office, I put together The Zen of Results E-Book. I turned a slide deck into a PDF to see if it makes it easier to share. It’s brief (17 […]

JD. Your book is the perfect gift for our family. I am going to share it with my husband, who is transitioning into a new career, my son who just returned from Brazil and is in search of a new job and myself to keep my creative brain focus! I appreciated the direct, applicable, concise format of the book. I also enjoy the references you add to your posts. I find them helpful and educational. Thank you!

Changing jobs can be stressful and the Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection pattern will definitely help. Since I’ve been using it over the past few years, I can tell that it both helps unleash creativity, as well as help you get more meaningful things done.

I think it especially helps on the creative side because it’s just enough routine to free up your brain, instead of having a perpetual buzz of tasks floating around.

One tip I recommend as your ideas start flowing is catch them in a little yellow sticky pad. Then save the ones you like in a tickler list named ideas. Ideas will come to you anywhere and writing them down on the stickies helps free your brain. When you move them to your ideas list, you’ll have a catalog of your best ideas. You can then cherry pick ideas you want to act on each day or each week.

JD. I apprecite your kind words and encouragement. I look forward to implementing your suggestions with my family. The “more meaningful getting done” is essential! Your yellow sticky notes idea is a form of my “Visual Impact Planning” process that I stil utillize and teach to others. In fact, it’s how I wrote and revised my books. I love the syncronicity of our exchange. I saw that you marked my website (one of my goals is to revise my site). I’ve marked your blog as one of my favorite. Another goal for me is to visit and follow other blogger to learn more about the process.

I absolutely support this cause. When not having the money to buy a book, go to the library! Unfortunately for me, I live in a small town in Norway, and being a girl that mainly reads English books and mostly paranormal/ urban fantasy etc., it is a ver…

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Stand on the Shoulders of Giants!

I am J.D. Meier, the best-selling author of Getting Results the Agile Way. Join me on a quest for the world's best insight and action for work and life. Learn more